Midland College rolls past Temple in Region V play

Published 4:00 pm, Friday, March 4, 2011

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Midland College rolls past Temple in Region V play

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LUBBOCK -- Midland College sophomore forward Jordan Walker always expects his team to win by a big margin. But it's pretty doubtful that anyone could have predicted the way the No. 3-ranked Chaparrals would demolish Temple College in the first round of the NJCAA Region V Tournament on Friday.

The Chaps shot an astonishing 67.2 percent from the floor and had six players in double figures as MC rolled past Temple College 113-58 at the Rip Griffin Center.

Jamaal Trice led the Chaps (28-3) with 19 points, Walker had 16, Guy Landry and Dwayne Davis each had 12, Rodney Milum added 11 and Dwight Miller chipped in with 10.

"We just came in here and did what we had to do," Walker said. "It's win or go home, so we were focused. We did this as a team and were making shots because we came out with a good mindset."

It was such a dominating performance for the Chaps that all but one player who played scored and three others had nine points.

Thanks to that victory, the Chaps move to today's 5 p.m. semifinal game against Western Junior College Athletic Conference rival Odessa College, which upset No. 15 Collin County 53-51.

It's hard to believe that at one point early in the game, Temple (19-11) had an 11-7 lead. That probably only made the Chaps angry because they stormed back to outscore the Leopards 48-18 the rest of the half to take a 55-29 lead into the locker room. In the process, the Chaps shot 60.6 percent from the floor.

"We shot well, and it seemed like everything was going in," Trice said. "We just wanted to go out and play hard. If we lose, we make sure we go out and play hard and let the outcome fall where it may."

It easily could have been overlooked that the Chaps played solid defense as they held Temple to 35.7 percent shooting in the first half and 37.5 percent for the game. Trice said it all began with his team's defensive play.

"Because Temple is so loose, it makes them dangerous," MC coach Ross Hodge said. "In the first five or seven minutes, we were a step slow on defense and they started making shots. Today we weathered that storm and got a little bit better on the defensive end of the floor, didn't give up too many baskets in transition, got a lot of the shots contested and did a pretty good job of rebounding the ball."

Added Hodge about his team's shooting, "We shot a good percentage. We made 43 shots but we had 29 assists, and you don't see that very often. What that tells you is that the guys are playing really unselfish and they did good job of turning down OK shots to get really good shots."

It would only get uglier for the Leopards in the second half as no matter where they turned, a different Chap was scoring and the score ballooned to 86-46 with 10:50 remaining.

Not helping the Leopards was playing without head coach Kirby Johnson, whose father passed away early on Friday. That meant volunteer assistant coach Alex Nixon had to take over coaching duties.

"My thoughts and prayers go out to (Johnson)," Hodge said. "I lost my father probably seven, eight years ago and I can certainly relate to that. That's a tough thing for any team to go through."

While this performance was very impressive, Hodge said his team needs to put it behind and treat it like it was a one-point victory to get focused for the next game.

"It's about surviving and advancing," Hodge said. "It's either you win by a lot or win by a little."

That next opponent is Odessa College, a team the Chaps have beaten in both meetings during the conference league, including a 61-53 victory in the regular season finale on Feb. 24.

"Really and truly in both games if you took the 80 minutes, I think there were 10 minutes out of the 80 we were able to separate," Hodge said. "But those other 70 minutes were pretty close, and I would imagine (today) would be the same way."

Added Walker about playing OC, "We know what they do and they know what we do. We just have to prepare for them."